Getting Out

Stated in a previous post, I described how I was a bit of an introvert. However, an event happened to me that had gotten me to see thing differently, pulling me away from my usual comforts. I see this now as an extremely effective method to get introverts, like myself, to get out of their comfort zone; perhaps getting antisocial individuals to want to go out and socialize; and for the average individual to see their environment in a new perspective and to even look at themselves deep inside and possibly change their perception about the mental environment in which they can also be considered introverts. What is this method you ask? It’s simple. It’s traveling.

By traveling, I got the feel of how small the world really is. When I was living in Houston Texas, I felt insignificant. It felt people were always better than me, in competition with me, or that I was living in a habitat designed for me to be, feel, and live the same way as everyone else. After I traveled, all of that changed. From Houston, we drove all the way to Kingman Arizona to visit relatives. While we were there, we traveled around to Flagstaff, the Grand Canyon, Sedona, through Sadona’s epic scenic route, Lake Havasu and various other places. It was an epic adventure that opened my mind as I enjoyed interacting with the extremely friendly locals, taking hundreds pictures, and feeling free just being myself and having a great time. One of the most notable things for me was how close we were to the sky. When I was in Houston, the sky seemed so distant and vast. It made the world feel colossal in size making me feel tiny and insignificant. In Arizona, it’s as if you could climb a mountain to experience what it’s like to be above the clouds. For some reason this made me feel very comfortable and free. Furthermore, being in a different environment has changed me a lot. Now that I am back in Houston, I realize how much of an illusion it seems to be confined to such a small urban area. In addition to that, I find the people here with somewhat of the same confined-mindset. Reflecting upon how I felt and how I continue to feel, I believe if others were to travel more often, preferably by car, they would get a sense of how small the world actually is, how greatly significant they are, how their urban environment can be seen as somewhat of an confined-institution. By traveling, I believe they can learn things about themselves that can be completely life changing. In conclusion, I believe everyone should travel at least once or twice a year to some place far away from their usual environment; so that they can see and experience new things, meet new people, and learn about uniquely different life styles.

The Governing of Humanity

If humanity is ever to establishing an interstellar community, they would need to rethink their current mindset of how they coexist living with each other. I have come up with what I believe is the best fundamental system for such an idea. I think humanity should be governed by two principles of ethics: the principle of himself and the principles of society. The principle of himself is the set of ethics in which the individual learns to critically think about the understanding of what is right and wrong through their own initiative. They learn a sense of personal-abiding morals in which they utilize to live harmoniously with themselves. The principles of society is the set of universal ethics in which an individual utilizes an understanding as well as a personal moral obligation towards coexisting harmoniously with family and other members of society. Utilizing these two principles, I believe an individual, as well as society as a whole, can govern itself. However, until then the use of morals taught through religious practices is necessary as society has still yet to learn benevolence or to utilize critical thinking for the rest of the good of their species.

Self-driving Cars

For those who’ve seen batman, I’m pretty sure you remember his self-driving auto-fetching vehicles and how it would be there to catch him when he jumps from tall buildings. Reflecting upon this idea, I had a thought of how useful this idea would be to physically have. Imagine driving to work and your family member needs your car. You could simply use a GPS, mobile device, or perhaps even a button on the car’s key chain to remotely activate a retrieve function where the vehicle would return to a designated location, thus allowing the transportation for another member without physically picking them up. Although, self-driving systems for cars using GPS is not new, when it is finally utilized it would be a useful feature to have in any car.

In addition to having cars having the ability to remotely return to previous destinations, when on the road and feeling tired, he or she could have the car automatically drive to their destination, pull over to the side of the road, park itself, parallel park itself, and even fuel itself.

Taking the step further, it would be a great idea to have a reasonable number of taxi-like vehicles or busses where the vehicle can be driven to designated locations on their own. It would be a good idea to have such vehicles run on electricity so that they could have charging stations designated specifically for those vehicles when they are not in use or when required. I think busses with this system would be a good idea for the safety of children getting to school routinely.

Wrapping up the article, I think in the close future vehicles will involve self-driving systems along with regular driving vehicles.

Radio-frequency Identification (RFID) Chips

I agree that biomechanical technology is an impressive innovation for our generation. I believe it has great potential in the distant future. However, in our present time in history I see more harm than good. The way I see it is that primarily it’s impractical. It seems pointless to implant a device into your body with limited capabilities. The next negative aspect is that it’s in your body. If a more new technology were to come out, it would be a terrible or potentially dangerous idea to try and remove it from the body. Then there is the problem of having it damaged and replaced. Removing it and replacing will most likely be difficult compared to implanting the chip. The next problem that could arise is what if the chip shows harmful effects, such as cancer, bacterial infection or some sort of allergic reaction during the implant phase or the long term duration of having the chip inside a person’s body. My final problem is addressing the controversial topic of the existence of this chip. It’s obvious that many individuals are drawn to the conspiracy of the mark of the beast and how it could lead to being used as a brainwashing device or a device used for monitoring or tracking purposes. I believe because we’re in an age of controversial political agendas, it would be most wise to avoid such an implant because the intentions of such life-influencing and privacy desiring government agencies can be seen as being kept secret and their agendas unknown.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhsHBTXv-ls

Mind Control

I fear mind control is very possible. If our mind is a series of millions of electro-neurological impulses happening simultaneously, then it is indeed possible for one’s mind to be hijacked. I theorize there could be methods to hijack an individual’s brain with the use of light, sound, frequency, or even radio waves, forcing an individual to enter a hypnotic-like state or to be sent false, manipulated and uncontrollable subconscious neurological commands. Perhaps it’s a good idea to start making laws in order to prevent such an event where an organization can utilize mind control technology in order to control their targets. In an age where neurologists are mapping out the brain with precision, it's a good idea to prevent what could potentially be a method for control or even devastation. 

Overpopulation

What will happen when the population size becomes unmanageable? How will we manage food production, resources, or possible chaos? Thomas Malthus, in the sixteenth and seventeenth century, theorizes it’s human nature that causes problems because of sexual urges which leads to reproduction, thus causing people to produce more rapidly than food production. I think such problems is worth considering because such a condition is a possibility in the future. Furthermore, is population control necessary? Should there be a reduction in population through survival of the fittest or a terrifying and devastating purge of human life? Not for a second I would consider this a rational solution. I believe the most rational solution lies with the control of birthrates. By limiting birth rates the population size can be reduced to a manageable size without the loss of life or through devastating means. Nonetheless, how would a population submit to such a contradiction? This could be done through ethics, through sanctions or technology. With the use of ethics, the population should understand what is necessary so that overpopulation doesn’t become a problem. This means making the personal decision to limit or to use practices in which leads to zero reproduction. As seen in the past, such practices as that observed in Japan’s population stagnation, there most definitely is a way by personal choice. Another method is to use sanction to prevent a family from having too many children or no children at all. An example of this is high taxes on children being born and penalties for unexpected births. Whether ethics or sanction, such ideas are controversial to the traditional family morality. Lastly the use of technology can also be useful. An example using technology, is that we could find ways to adjust to overpopulation by developing methods to have overpopulation sustainable. Such as increasing production rate of resources or food, colonizing mars, or inventing alternate methods of sustainability by building underground, upwards, or extending beyond normal habital spaces such as living on the sea, under the sea, in the sky, or in space. In addition, I believe when overpopulation becomes an obvious problem, I think the good in people, those with a rational sense, will find a natural solution to how they will want to personally take measures to help with population control.

Alternative to Regulating the Internet

News about the government trying to regulate and control the internet is nothing new. Now it seems DARPA wants to get involved by privatizing, felonizing or monitoring the internet. I believe with control over information of the internet, is the first step in some sort of counter progressive agenda regarding politics. I believe an even better idea is to create another version of the internet in which the government can utilize, control, and provide security for businesses and agencies. I believe they should keep the traditional version of the internet for those who want to continue using it.

Learning to Listen

In speech class I took a self-evaluation listening test. The test had a list of ten bad habits; that which I will list below. Regarding the ten bad habits, there was a frequency chart from almost always, usually, sometimes, seldom, and almost never. I had to place an check mark on the frequency I thought was correct. The following list of ten habits were:

1. Giving into mental distraction.

2. Giving into physical distractions.

3. Trying to recall everything a speaker says.

4. Rejecting a topic as uninteresting before hearing the speaker.

5. Faking paying attention.

6. Jumping to conclusions about the speaker’s meaning.

7. Deciding a speaker is wrong before hearing everything she or he has to say.

8. Judging a speaker on personal appearance.

9. Not paying attention to a speaker’s evidence.

10. Focusing on delivery rather than on what the speaker says.

After taking the test I had to use their grading chart. For every “almost always” checked, I gave myself a score of 2. For every “usually” checked, I gave myself a score of 4. For every “sometimes” checked, I gave myself a score of 6. For every “seldom” checked, I gave myself a score of 8. For every “almost never” checked, I gave myself a score of 10. Then I would count all the check marks and add them together. In this test I got a total of 84. 

Now according to my score, I was given three score interpretations. Below 70 meant that I need lots of training in listening. From 71 to 90 meant I listened well. Above 90 meant I listened exceptionally well. 

Next we took another test. This time it was a verbal test. The teacher gave us a series of questions which we wrote down our answers accordingly.

Questions similar to these for example: 

1. If you were a baby calf, who would you go to? Your mama bull or papa bull?

2. If you were a pilot, and your first son is 8 years old, your second son is four years older than your first son, what is the age of your third son who is six years younger than your second son, what is the age of the pilot if he is twenty years older than the third son. 

3. If a widow was married for 56 years and her husband wanted to give her something for their oncoming anniversary, what should he give her? 

4. Moses took in how many of each species of animals into the ark?

As you hopefully noticed, the questions aren't what you think they are. A bull can only be male, you are the pilot, and a widow can’t have an anniversary if her husband is dead, it was Noah not Moses that took the animals into the ark. 

As I examined the answers on my verbal test, it came clear to me that I wasn't as good of a listener as I thought I was. Thus, for that reason, I am including an article about listening in my blog. 

First what is listening? Are there any ways to improve listening skills? For the duration of the article I will list the concept that are used in listening how one can improve their listening skills. 

To begin, listening is defined as a process of receiving, attending to, and assigning meaning to stimuli. The concepts of listening are: selecting, attending, understanding, remembering, and evaluating. 

Selecting – means to choose one sound to listen to, among the many competing for one’s attention.

Attending – means to focus on a particular message of sound. 

There are ways you can improve the skill, such as: Eliminating personal distraction; get physically and mentally ready to listen; make a shift from speaker to listener; and avoid prejudging what others would say.

Understanding  - is the ability to decode a message by correctly assigning meaning to it.

The ways to improve this skill is to: Organize key ideas; pay attention to non-verbal communication; asking questions to gain further information; mentally paraphrase what has been said; and relate it to what one already knows. 

Remembering – is the process of retaining and saving information. Information is stored in short-term memory (which can only attend to 7+/-2 items at once). Important information is moved into long –term memory. This is the capacity that is infinite, but is not always accessible or to have the ability to recall stored information. I personally have an awful short term memory, but I do have the ability to recall long term information such as when I was a child. For example, when I was a child, I remember playing in the snow. The world was enormous to me and everything was exaggeratingly bright and blurry. It turns out I was three years old at the time when I first encountered snow according to my mom. 

To improve how to remember, we can: repeat information for long-term memory; make up memory aids (to call memories); or take well written short notes. 

If I may add to this, in psychology I learned that the brain works well when pairing items in groups of six, for example learning six items on individual flash cards at a time. Another interesting tactic is storing information in mental variables. This is like assigning an item to another item or thought you think has similarities. For example, in my Japanese class I assigned the word tokei and jikanto clock. Tokei in Japanese means clock and jikan means time. By assigning tokei and jikan to a clock, I was able to wake up in the morning and remember the words tokei and jikan as I hit my alarm clock. Later, I began applying sentence structure, so that when I woke up in the morning I would ask myself, “kore wa nan jokan desuka?” I would respond to myself with “kore wa…” and the correct time. So as you can see assigning mental variables helps with recalling information one assigns to a particular object or instance. Another very useful tactic is to use self-talk. You can talk to yourself with a deep focus and use it to recall information later. By doing this you are not just talking to yourself, you are also talking to your subconscious. Controversially this is the idea many well-known books that focus on motivation and success uses. For example, “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill emphasizes the value of self-talk and how it can be used to mentally prepare an individual to be successful, never have the idea of failure, and always have a plan. 

Responding – involves confirming your understanding of a message.

To improve this skill, you can use non-verbal cues, such as eye contact and gestures; Use verbal communication, such as asking questions or paraphrasing; avoid unnecessary details; and be descriptive when responding rather than using evaluation. 

Evaluating – which involves analyzing the message for how truthful or believable you judge it to be. 

Evaluating is also referred to as critical thinking/ listening. 

To improve one’s evaluation skills, one can separate factual statements from unconfirmed observations or listen critically. 

I probably should emphasize on that last part. Listening critically means to pay attention to the speaker’s words in tremendous detail. A good example of using this would be like the test I stated at the beginning of the article. 

If I may also add to this, I’m sure there are individuals with perhaps not so great verbal communication skills, such as people who stutter, stammer, or have difficulty finding the appropriate or accurate words. In such case, I think it’s important to focus on the message if not the underlying message or idea they are trying to state. 

Also regarding improving one’s evaluation skills, I would also consider unconfirmed observations as information worth retaining. The reason is because I believe all information can be useful depending on circumstance. I also believe such unconfirmed observations should be stated with a source of where the information came from. For example, according to theoretical scientists, space anomalies could be the result of unexplored interstellar activity. With the use of unconfirmed observations as resources, one can explore different ideas and possibilities. 

In conclusion, I could see how the test in the beginning of the article led to the idea of how I thought how well I listened to further examining how well I actually listened using the verbal test. By examining the various concepts of listening, I further gained insight on how to become a better listener. Furthermore, by creating this article I hopeful could provide better understanding or knowledge of how one can become a better listener and to introduce the platform in which one can improve communicating effectively.  

My List of Random Questions

I have taken the luxury to think up some very interesting questions. Some are random; others self evaluating. Please take the time to look through the questions and think about them for yourself. 

Random questions:

• What would happen if you needed to be a virgin to get married?

• What if old ancient tribal logic was true that once you eat a creature, not only do you gain it's strength, but you also begin to think like the animal. 

• Political question: Should only those with a sufficient education, such as a high school diploma, be allowed to vote?

• Political question: Should the government have a law reset, review or change every twenty years? 

Self-evaluation questions:

• If there were a billions duplicates of yourself would there be peace or chaos?

• What would you do if you were a king in ancient times? Would people think you are a good king?

• How would you be different if you were the opposite gender? What if you woke up one morning and your gender was swapped? What if you met yourself from an alternate reality and you were a different gender? How do you think you would act?

• What would you be like if you had super powers? Would you be good or evil?

• If you could teleport where would you go?

• What would life be like if we could fly or hover in the sky?

• What would you do if you were the ruler of the world? What would you change? How would you change it?

• Would life be more interesting if we could space travel? Would we ever get bored from it? 

• What would you do if everything was free and you didn't have to work? How would you spend your time?

• Imagine being stuck on an island or in a remote forest. Could you survive? 

• What would you do in the future if everything has been done, invented, and explored?

• What if you were actually in a simulated environment and nothing was real? Would you escape? 

• Reflecting back on life, are you the same person you once were? Do you like what you have become? If you don't like what you have become, how would you change? 

• What would happen if one day you were of a different race or a race in which one least desired? How would you act? Would it change your perspective on things? 

• What would life be like if you were: 1. A feral person with no understanding of size, dimension, or how life functioned. 2. If you were only one inch tall. 3. If you were an unstoppable monster or creature and the world was out to destroy you. 

• What would happen if your dreams or nightmares were to one day become reality? How would you react? What would you do?

• Imagine your bedroom as a enclosed environment. That nothing exists beyond the door of your room. How would you survive? How long would you survive? How would you live? And overall, how would you stay sane? 

• What if the world was literally turned upside down; where you had to walk upside down on the ceiling. If you were outside during the reverse, imagine falling into the sky and perhaps to your doom. 

• If for one week you were to have all the knowledge in the universe and beyond, what would you do? Would you teach it? Or would you use or abuse it? 

• If you lived in a rural poverty area and you had nothing, what would you do to survive? Would you invent, farm, or sell something? 

I will add more questions as I update my blog.

Could modern entertainment be used for mass social engineering?

Looking back at music and movies from the 1920s all the way up to modern time, I took notice of the variations in themes, aesthetics, feelings, etiquettes, storytelling, level of violence, amount of action, language, relation to what is considered innocent, humor, originality, level of creativity… etc. I took notice when I examined modern music, which would be considered unbearable, immoral, and destructive by society in the past, I thought to myself what if the big name music producers, or even some movie studios, were utilizing social engineering to make a product society of their design? I guess an example of this in relation to music is that we can see a large spread of westernized pop culture music spread throughout Asia, predominantly in South Korea. In my defense, I have nothing against modern movies or music regardless how inappropriate or immoral it can be. I’m tolerant or a fan of any form of creativity. However, I think it’s only right to question this idea; even though this topic seems to follows more under the realm of conspiracy.  Nevertheless, I question how entertainment today could impact our mentality and behavior in the future? Where would such entertainment lead us? Is it possible that it could be used for political purposes or to spread destructive or maybe even perhaps meaningful messages? In all honesty, I’m not completely sure how music producers or movie studios publicized music and movies; however, I dare ask the question if it has the ability to shape society relating to the way we think or behave or if it could be the product of some sort of mass social engineering? It’s a question I think is worth thinking about even if there is no relation to any form of social engineering.